The present invention relates to a vehicle elevator (lift) and conveyor arrangement, particularly for cars, in vehicle parking buildings of the kind in which a vehicle is moved to a parking space without the assistance of a driver.
Examples of such vehicle conveying systems are found described in Swedish Patent Application No. 8605279-2 and Swedish Patent Application No. 8703756-0, the priority applications for U.S. application Ser. No. 223,786, filed July 26, 1988 (now allowed), and International Application PCT/SE88/00583, published as WO88/4350 on June 16, 1988.
The present elevator and conveyor arrangement is intended for use in car parking buildings in which cars are conveyed horizontally and vertically from a ground floor area to a parking space situated in the building, without the aid of a driver and without rolling the car. Such buildings form part of the prior art and include a multiple of floors or stories, each story comprising a plurality of mutually adjacent car parking spaces.
One particular advantage obtained with parking buildings of this kind is that they can be run unmanned, or substantially unmanned. Thus, a driver is able to drive his/her car to a predetermined position in relation to the conveyor arrangement and pay the requisite fee into an automatic pay box, wherewith a ticket is issued which contains information as to the part of the building in which the car will be parked. A computer detects a free parking space, with the aid of sensors, and causes the car to be moved into the space chosen. When collecting the car, the ticket is inserted into a reader in which the information contained on the ticket is read-off, whereafter the computer will activate and control the conveyor system such as to collect the car, subsequent to payment having been made.
A serious problem with such parking systems or arrangements is one of locking the car relative to the conveyor arrangement in a simple and ready fashion, without requiring manual assistance. The problem is accentuated by the fact that different cars have different track widths and also different wheel bases.
This problem has been solved with the vehicle conveyor systems or arrangements taught by the aforesaid two patent specifications. The conveyor systems according to said patent specifications include eight lifting blocks which are intended to be placed in pairs on respective sides of each wheel of the car and therewith cause the wheels to raised or lowered in relation to a supporting surface.
The blocks are movable mounted on a so-called transfer carriage which is operative in moving the car to a parking space.